The 2025 US economy – in charts: rising prices, hiring slowdown, rollercoaster growth

The US economy is thriving, according to Donald Trump: jobs are surging, prices are falling, wages are soaring. The government’s own official statistics paint a more complicated picture of 2025.“The Trump Economic Golden Age is FULL steam ahead,” the president claimed on social media, after growth data for the third quarter of the year – covering July, August and September – was unexpectedly strong.But other key indicators have been far less robust in 2025. If Trump is right, and an unprecedented economic boom is about to take hold, the foundations appear fragile

Labour must learn lessons from history as automation hits jobs market | Richard Partington

Walk through a supermarket and the technology is everywhere. Self-service checkouts, electronic shelf labels, handheld barcode scanners and the video screens showing you – caught by AI facial recognition cameras – leaving the shop.In an economy struggling for growth, the encroachment of these machines in our everyday lives could be an early sign of a new dawn – a tech-driven renaissance in activity after years of flatlining growth in productivity and stalled business investment. No bad thing.On the other hand, it could be the glimpse of a dystopian future that is already beginning to take shape

From shrimp Jesus to erotic tractors: how viral AI slop took over the internet

Flood of unreality is an endpoint of algorithm-driven internet and product of an economy dependent on a few top tech firms In the algorithm-driven economy of 2025, one man’s shrimp Jesus is another man’s side hustle.AI slop – the low-quality, surreal content flooding social media platforms, designed to farm views – is a phenomenon, some would say the phenomenon of the 2024 and 2025 internet. Merriam-Webster’s word of the year this year is “slop”, referring exclusively to the internet variety.It came about shortly after the advent of popular large language models, such as ChatGPT and Dall-E, which democratised content creation and enabled vast swathes of internet denizens to create images and videos that resembled – to varying degrees – the creations of professionals.In 2024, it began to achieve peak cultural moments

More than 20% of videos shown to new YouTube users are ‘AI slop’, study finds

More than 20% of the videos that YouTube’s algorithm shows to new users are “AI slop” – low-quality AI-generated content designed to farm views, research has found.The video-editing company Kapwing surveyed 15,000 of the world’s most popular YouTube channels – the top 100 in every country – and found that 278 of them contain only AI slop.Together, these AI slop channels have amassed more than 63bn views and 221 million subscribers, generating about $117m (£90m) in revenue each year, according to estimates.The researchers also made a new YouTube account and found that 104 of the first 500 videos recommended to its feed were AI slop. One-third of the 500 videos were “brainrot”, a category that includes AI slop and other low-quality content made to monetise attention

Greg Fisilau sets the tone as Exeter show strength with dismissal of Leicester

There is still a long way to go but Exeter would have settled for their current position back in the summer. Second place in the Prem table heading into 2026 with momentum building nicely is a very different story from last season’s grim struggle and, in front of a 15,000 capacity crowd, here was another example of exactly why they are a developing force.While this was not quite as compelling as their pre-Christmas raid on Saracens, the Chiefs could conceivably have registered another half-dozen tries in the absence of Len Ikitau, their injured Wallaby centre. Another barnstorming display from No 8 Greg Fisilau set the standard and the whole side showed enough physicality and defensive hunger to leave the Tigers to survive on seasonal scraps.Chiefs, bottom of the heap 12 months ago, might even have been on top entering the new year for the first time in five years had they not been denied a try bonus point at the death

Kyrgios defeats Sabalenka but Battle of the Sexes veers too close to circus

Nick Kyrgios won tennis’s latest Battle of the Sexes against Aryna Sabalenka in a dispiriting contest in Dubai that veered uneasily between exhibition, gimmick and outright circus.The Australian, who has won only one competitive singles match since the end of 2022 and has slipped to 671 in the world rankings, was sweating heavily and breathing hard as early as the fifth game of the match. Yet to no one’s great surprise, the extreme power of his serve, combined with the spin and velocity of his groundstrokes, proved too much for the women’s No 1 player.“It was a really tough match,” the 30-year-old Kyrgios insisted after his 6-3, 6-3 victory. “ I didn’t know what to expect